The RCM has been undergoing a project to establish the research priorities for midwifery practice and maternity care in the UK. Jenny Cunningham and Dr Jude Field, RCM Research Advisors, explain the project and reveal the top 10 priorities and the strategy for embedding these going forward.
The UK’s top10 midwifery practice and maternity care research priorities are here! Together with the James Lind Alliance (JLA), we led the project and are excited to share with you the final top 10. The reason this is important is that maternity research is less well funded than other areas of health and midwives are under-represented as leaders of research studies. This project was truly collaborative with women and birthing people involved right from the beginning (as Project Partners Steering Group members and survey respondents), as well as midwives, midwifery students, maternity support workers and maternity care assistants. You can see more about the project here.
EDI considerations
We used an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lens throughout the project as we wanted to ensure the top 10 reflected the UK’s diverse population. We know that research is so often drawn predominantly from white, middle-class participants who are typically overrepresented in research. We used strategies throughout the life of the project to seek to change this bias, including reaching out to service user organisations who represent or work for minoritised groups and extending the surveys to respondents from the global majority.
The workshop
The top 10 were decided on 17 March 2025 at a workshop of 24 people – members of our profession as well as women, birthing people and representatives of service user organisations. This group chose from a list of 26 priorities which were the most important options of those who completed our 2nd survey.
Prior to the workshop, we discussed with our Steering Group, priorities which were considered most important by those from the global majority, members of the LGBTQ+ community and respondents who had identified as disabled (both physical and psychological). This was to ensure that EDI was central to the priorities discussed by the workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by JLA Advisors, and we attended but had to remain silent throughout all discussions. We were observers to a carefully developed and gently led day, with plenary as well as important break out sessions. We were struck by the respect each person showed to others when discussing sensitive and often personal topics, such as baby loss and racism within maternity services. The outcome – the top 10 – was announced at the end of the day. The workshop participants were happy with their involvement and everyone had at least one of their top 10s in the final list.
We launched the top 10 at the RCM conference on 1 May 2025 and here they are.
The top 10
- What is required to create and implement culturally safe maternity care in the UK for women and birthing parents, and their babies, and staff from the global ethnic majority? What role does decolonisation of the midwifery curriculum and ongoing learning in clinical settings play in improving cultural competence and safety?
- What are the appropriate reasons for induction of labour? What are the short and long term maternal and baby outcomes associated with it? How should this be communicated to women and birthing parents and their informed consent gained?
- What are the important components of personalised maternity care to ensure informed choice and decision making and how should this care be provided?
- How does the culture within the maternity services, including racism, incivility and other negative behaviours amongst staff impact on midwives, maternity support workers and maternity care assistants and what can be done to address this?
- What factors mean that birth is becoming increasingly medicalised, and what are the long and short term outcomes resulting from interventions? How does medicalisation impact on the choices that women and birthing parents can make and the clinical care that they receive?
- How can the causes and consequences of pre-existing psychological trauma during the perinatal period be better understood and prevented or the impact reduced? What role does trauma-informed care play in addressing it?
- How can postnatal care be prioritised and improved so that mothers and birthing parents and their babies receive high quality care that meets their individual needs?
- How can the maternity services improve bereavement care? How should the best available information be used by maternity services to improve the bereavement care experience for parents who suffer a loss in their current or previous pregnancies? What support and care provision should be available for families following a maternal death?
- How can midwifery continue to be an attractive career for potential applicants? How can midwifery students and qualified midwives be helped to stay in the profession in a way that provides a positive work environment and supports the provision of safe and compassionate care?
- What are the specific needs of neurodivergent individuals (including those undiagnosed) throughout their maternity care, and what knowledge, understanding and communication skills should maternity care professionals possess to provide safe and compassionate care?
What happens next?
The RCM will embed the Top Ten research priorities within it’s organisational-wide practices. It is a central plank in the RCM Research and Development Strategy 2025-27. Our approach will include, but not be limited to, topics for our Small Research Awards, support for our activists and Branches and our conferences.
We need to make sure that these top 10 priorities become funded research projects. The RCM will champion the Top 10 research priorities and seek to ensure their take-up by individuals and organisations across the UK. We will highlight and promote funding opportunities with grant makers and charities, such as the NIHR and the Wellbeing of Women. As a JLA project, they automatically are able to be used by midwives and other researchers in the NIHR James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships rolling call.
While it is acknowledged that this project was undertaken in the UK the RCM will highlight its relevance to the international midwifery community.
We will evaluate the success of the top 10 on a regular basis.
What you can do
- Read and discuss the priorities with your colleagues.
- Use the priorities for any research or service evaluation you are planning.
- Invite us to meetings and events where we can talk about how to make these priorities as impactful as possible.
Jenny Cunningham and Dr Jude Field, RCM Research Advisors
June 2025
Workshop participants holding up their favourite priorities
